Posted on 04/22/2011 4:16:39 AM PDT by Kaslin
Don't be fooled by The Donald. Take it from one who knows: I'm a South Jersey gal who was raised on the outskirts of Atlantic City in the looming shadow of Trump's towers. All through my childhood, casino developers and government bureaucrats joined hands, raised taxes and made dazzling promises of urban renewal. Then we wised up to the eminent-domain thievery championed by our hometown faux free-marketeers.
America, it's time you wised up to Donald Trump's property redistribution racket, too.
Trump has been wooing conservative activists for months and flirting with a GOP presidential run -- first at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington and most recently at a tea party event in South Florida. He touts his business experience, "high aptitude" and "bragadocious" deal-making abilities. But he's no more a standard-bearer of conservative values, limited government and constitutional principles than the cast of "Jersey Shore."
Too many mega-developers like Trump have achieved success by using and abusing the government's ability to commandeer private property for purported "public use." Invoking the Fifth Amendment takings clause, real estate moguls, parking garage builders, mall developers and sports palace architects have colluded with elected officials to pull off legalized theft in the name of reducing "blight." Under eminent domain, the definition of "public purpose" has been stretched like Silly Putty to cover everything from roads and bridges to high-end retail stores, baseball stadiums and casinos.
While casting himself as America's new constitutional savior, Trump has shown reckless disregard for fundamental private property rights. In the 1990s, he waged a notorious war on elderly homeowner Vera Coking, who owned a little home in Atlantic City that stood in the way of Trump's manifest land development. The real estate mogul was determined to expand his Trump Plaza and build a limo parking lot -- Coking's private property be damned. The nonprofit Institute for Justice, which successfully saved Coking's home, explained the confiscatory scheme:
"Unlike most developers, Donald Trump doesn't have to negotiate with a private owner when he wants to buy a piece of property, because a governmental agency -- the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority or CRDA -- will get it for him at a fraction of the market value, even if the current owner refuses to sell. Here is how the process works.
"After a developer identifies the parcels of land he wants to acquire and a city planning board approves a casino project, CRDA attempts to confiscate these properties using a process called 'eminent domain,' which allows the government to condemn properties 'for public use.' Increasingly, though, CRDA and other government entities exercise the power of eminent domain to take property from one private person and give it to another. At the same time, governments give less and less consideration to the necessity of taking property and also ignore the personal loss to the individuals being evicted."
Trump has attempted to use the same tactics in Connecticut and has championed the reviled Kelo vs. City of New London Supreme Court ruling upholding expansive use of eminent domain. He told Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto that he agreed with the ruling "100 percent" and defended the chilling power of government to kick people out of their homes and businesses based on arbitrary determinations:
"The fact is, if you have a person living in an area that's not even necessarily a good area, and government, whether it's local or whatever, government wants to build a tremendous economic development, where a lot of people are going to be put to work and make (an) area that's not good into a good area, and move the person that's living there into a better place -- now, I know it might not be their choice -- but move the person to a better place and yet create thousands upon thousands of jobs and beautification and lots of other things, I think it happens to be good."
Like most statist promises of bountiful job creation, government-engineered redevelopment math rarely adds up. Trump's corporations have backed casino industry bailouts and wealth-redistributing "tax-increment financing" schemes -- the very kind of taxpayer-subsidized interventions we've seen on a grand scale under the Obama administration.
Championing liberty begins at the local level. There is nothing more fundamental than the principle that a man's home is his castle. Donald Trump's career-long willingness to trample this right tells you everything you need to know about his bogus tea party sideshow.
I suspect that if Trump only talked about economic issues and never mentioned the birther issue no one outside of The Apprentice audience would even know he was running. We've got 20 potential candidates and all of them are talking about the economic issues. How come the circus clown is the only one drawing a crowd?
Trump doesn’t do anything to come in second. Love him or hate him, it looks like he’s going to be President Trump.
That said, Donald Trump did not invent gambling, nor was he the one who got NJ to pass legislation that allowed parimutuel betting and casinos in Atlantic City, NJ in 1971 (Michelle was 1 year old at the time).
Donald Trump is in the interview process at the moment. Says alot of the right things, and speaks his mind aggressively and confidently. I haven't "hired" him yet, but I like what I am hearing.
We have a number of great, conservative women cheerleading for a conservative America -- Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann -- and I value their contributions to changing the game in our favor in the 2012 election cycle. I like what I hear from them too, but I haven't "hired" either of thm either.
Huckabee - and that jowly Nixonian 5-o'clock shadow + Mr. SmoothTalk.... Ball-less Palwenty aka Mr. Mock Turtle who couldn't stop Al Franken of all people from stealing a Senate seat.... Mr. door-to-door FullerBrushman-like salesman Romney.... Is THAT the best we've got when it comes to the "mensch"-factor?
We are vetting a quarterback.
Alot of us are in the mood for a pit-bull right about now.
Those guys -- maybe one can be in charge of the Gator-aide, another can be in charge of picking up the jock straps on the floor, and another can sweep up after the lockeroom is emptied out -- but none of them are quaterback material.
Our fellow FReeper, and now Congressman Allen West said if Trump asked him to be his running mate, he'd strongly consider it.
Trump + West? That looks like a team that could carry the ball a great distance.
I would "hire" West, and I might be pursuaded eventually to hire the other guy too. But I can name 3 others who needn't even try to pretend they could quarterback anything. Not saying they or the girls might not have a job to do in the 2012 election cycle, but maybe not as big as anyone currently might be envisioning for themselves.
And when we do select our quarterback, I'll expect Michelle Malkin to be a team player and get behind our "guy" too.
FReegards!
Nope, Trump talked about economic and others issue for several weeks before he started talking about Obama's BC. It's the MSM and others trying to discredit him who now try to act as if that's practically the only issue he's addressed. He's talked about the BC for barely one month, if that.
Here's a link from 1/21/2011 showing Trump talking about China
Trump calls deal with China 'Peanuts'
What's the earliest date he talked about the BC?
I understand the wider point you're trying to make, but I can see you don't read much from Malkin. Visit her site and you'll see.
And I think this is the day Trump’s views (with no mention of the BC) began gaining traction. On 1/21/2011, Rush discussed an interview Wolf Blitzer had done with Trump, so that took Trump’s ideas from Wolf’s few hundred thousand viewers to Rush’s twenty million or so listeners. That’s when Trump took off and interviews with Rush and Hannity followed, then he started discussing the birther issue about two months later, etc.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_012111/content/01125108.guest.html
Why doesn’t he challenge OBAMA in the Democratic primary?
Anyone who calls Chuckie Schumer a long time friend and gives him $$$ to get re-elected, will never earn or get my vote.
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